KOHAT: The all Pakistan oil tanker and petrol pump associations have demanded that if there is danger to the Kohat friendship tunnel from full carriers it should at least allow the passage of empties returning to Karachi and Gwadar from Peshawar.

Yousuf Mishwani, the chairman of oil tankers association, in this regard has also met Deputy Commissioner, Kohat, Ilyas Khalid, urging him to allow passage of the oil tankers through the tunnel, as many truck drivers had died due to accidents while negotiating the perilous 11-kilometre hilly track between Kohat and Darra Adamkhel. He came all the way from Karachi to lead the 15-day strike of the oil tankers body in the district.

Nationwide, Mr Mishwani said not a single tunnel was closed to the oil tankers except in Kohat, and if the ban was standard operation procedure it should be applied across the board.

After having been disappointed by the local administration, the office-bearers of both the associations held talks with MNA Sheharyar Afridi, who took them to the Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq who assured them that as soon as new chairman of National Highway Authority took charge he would take up the issue with him.

Shehzad Khan, secretary general of the petrol pumps association, told Dawn on telephone that the army which was controlling the tunnel was very cooperative and allowed the tankers since the opening of the tunnel in 2003.

Mr Mishwani said suddenly with the changing of the staff in NHA it slapped a ban on the entry of oil tankers in the tunnel. He said the NHA had allowed them to use the tunnel from 12am to 6am when there was almost no traffic inside it. He said they would soon talk to the corps commander Peshawar on the matter.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017